Our Adventurous Independence Day 2018

July 4, 2018:  The Rich Family is ready to conquer
The Adventure Park at Virginia Aquarium.

Our Independence Day celebrations are usually pretty mellow.  Don't get me wrong--we decorate and get decked out in our patriotic clothes and accessories.  We just usually enjoy a lazy day, maybe a trip to the pool, grilling out hamburgers and hot dogs and watching A Capitol Fourth at night. 

July 4, 2016:  We like to get our red, white and blue on!

July 4, 2014:  We won in the family division
for the Independence Day parade on base
in Sasebo, Japan.  

This year Matt decided he wanted us to go see live fireworks.  He pretty much says that every year but other than watching the fireworks at Huis Ten Bosch from the roof of our parking garage in Japan, the last time we saw live Independence Day fireworks is when we went to Mt. Vernon in 2011.

July 4, 2011: Nothing like spending Independence Day at the
home of our first president, George Washington.

Mt. Vernon had "daytime fireworks" over the Potomac,
which is nice when you have toddlers.  No late night,
past-their-bedtime meltdowns.

We are members of Nauticus, the maritime museum on the Norfolk waterfront that is home to the USS Wisconsin.  They advertised a fireworks viewing party for members on the Promenade deck of the Decker Half Moone Center, which is an event center/cruise ship terminal attached to Nauticus.   From the deck, you can easily see the City of Norfolk's fireworks, which are launched from a barge in the harbor.

With our night planned, I went to work on our daytime plans.  The kids received a 10-climb ticket pack to The Adventure Park at Virginia Aquarium (Adventure Park) from Santa for Christmas.  We've been to Adventure Park three times before and have always had a great time.  It's full of elements to climb in the trees with zip lines and other fun things.  There are fifteen different courses rated from purple (easiest) to double black (hardest), like ski trails would be rated.  It's not crazy-expensive, but it's also not priced to do every week.  At first it seems like a lot of money for three hours, but by the end of the third hour, we're all ready to be done.  We've never done Adventure Park in the summer when it is very hot and crowded (just like Disney) but I took a chance on a holiday and booked us for 9:00 am, the first time slot, so we could climb before it became oppressively hot.  As it turns out, it wasn't too crowded, and it wasn't too hot.  It was still quite humid so there was a lot of sweating involved, and after Leah and Matt got stuck on a black course behind two rescues so that it took them an hour to get through the course and Aaron and I were waiting for them for a good 30 minutes after our time expired, we were all pretty hangry when it was time to leave.  Luckily, there was a Chick-fil-a nearby so by 3:00 pm, after we had eaten, returned home and showered, we were all back to normal.

"Woo hoo!  Zip lining is awesome!" says Leah.

"I agree.  Zip lining is awesome!" says Aaron.

"Adventure Park is awesome!" says Julie.

The weather was perfect.  After days of Black Flag heat conditions, the temperature topped out only to about 86.  Our cats, Ladybird and Shadow took full advantage.

Shadow, our prim and proper cat.

Ladybird likes to let it all hang out.

Matt grilled hamburgers for an
all-American dinner.

The doors for the Nauticus event opened at 8:00 pm with the fireworks beginning at 9:30 pm.  We got there at 8:10 pm, by the time we parked at the parking garage and walked across the street and people were already a couple rows deep.  (It was BYOC--bring your own chair.)  There were refreshments for sale and the time went fairly quickly.  The view for the fireworks was very good, but you don't get the music like you would if you were watching it on TV or if we were down at the park where the city was hosting the event.

Private Event--no commoners allowed!

View of the Decker Half Moone Center.

Waiting for sunset.

View of the fireworks from the Promenade Deck.

The fireworks weren't too shabby.

By 10:00 pm it was all over and there was a mass exodus from not only the Nauticus viewing party but from all the people at the neighboring park, the waterfront restaurants, etc.  We sat in our car in the parking garage for quite some time before we could work our way out, just like after a concert.  Luckily, the best thing I can say about our tiny, cheaply-made military housing is that we are located 20 minutes from everywhere so once we did get onto the interstate, it didn't take long for us to get home.  The kids did really well for such a long day, especially Aaron.  He's not built for staying up late.  We got home about 11:00 pm and after quickly changing into pajamas and brushing teeth, Aaron was literally falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.  I'm not sure if he knew I kissed him goodnight.

Aaron and Dan, his big capybara lovey, slept in the next day.

We had a lazy day the next day and watched the Capitol Fourth that we DVR'd during our lunchtime.  We even ended up ordering Papa John's for dinner.  Nothing says 'Murica like pizza and explosions, right?